Looks very interesting. Picked it up off the book exchange shelf at my apartment building here in Shanghai.

Oops--I forgot to journal this book after I read it for my book group last month. It was an enjoyable fable, but throughout I found myself mentally inserting the bullet points that would have appeared in each chapter if this were an American self-help book: "follow your bliss," "live in the moment," etc. Still, it was a pleasant meditation on the human need to realize a dream, and the human failings that ensure some dreams will never be fulfilled.

I would have enjoyed this book much more if I hadn't read the preface afterward; reading that Paul Coelho had actually studied alchemy certainly didn't increase my respect for him any, that's for certain. Alchemy?!? On a symbolic level that's all well and good, but anyone who actually spent over a decade (in any recent century) looking for the philosopher's stone is beyond my comprehension.

Rec'd from Genevalove for the 5th Tiara RABCK Sweepstakes. Thanks!

Just could not get into this book. Will release this week.

RELEASE NOTES:

Left on blue chair in waiting area near coatrack.